In situ Simulation of Thermal Reality

Peng Jin; Jinrong Liu; Fubao Yang; Fabio Marchesoni; Jian-Hua Jiang; Jiping Huang

doi:10.34133/research.0222

In situ Simulation of Thermal Reality

Research (Wash D C). 2023 Sep 22:6:0222. doi: 10.34133/research.0222. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Peng Jin¹, Jinrong Liu¹, Fubao Yang¹, Fabio Marchesoni^{2

3}, Jian-Hua Jiang⁴, Jiping Huang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, and Key Laboratory of Micro and Nano Photonic Structures (MOE), Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China.
² Center for Phononics and Thermal Energy Science, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Special Artificial Microstructure Materials and Technology, School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.
³ Department of Physics, University of Camerino, Camerino 62032, Italy.
⁴ Suzhou Institute for Advanced Research, University of Science and Technology of China, Suzhou 215123, China.

Abstract

Simulated reality encompasses virtual, augmented, and mixed realities-each characterized by different degrees of truthfulness in the visual perception: "all false," "coexistence of true and false," and "difficult distinction between true and false," respectively. In all these technologies, however, the temperature rendering of virtual objects is still an unsolved problem. Undoubtedly, the lack of thermal tactile functions substantially reduces the quality of the user's real-experience perception. To address this challenge, we propose theoretically and realize experimentally a technological platform for the in situ simulation of thermal reality. To this purpose, we design a thermal metadevice consisting of a reconfigurable array of radiating units, capable of generating the thermal image of any virtual object, and thus rendering it in situ together with its thermal signature. This is a substantial technological advance, which opens up new possibilities for simulated reality and its applications to human activities.